Category: Personal God

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? — shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” “As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:35-39 Friends, we all, as sheep have gone astray, all to our own way, but God has laid on Christ the iniquity of us all. As humans we go astray like sheep go astray, we drift, we wander, we fall…

“…what is capable of strength must be made strong. This is the Divine Law throughout all of life…” The Expositors Bible., “The world is ‘a vale of soul making,’ a great sculptors shop, and we are the statues.” “…the statues must endure many blows of the chisel and be hardened in the fire.” “This is not optional.” “…without it we have no face with which to face God.” Kreeft quotes C.S.Lewis from one of his allegorical books, “How can we meet the gods face to face till we have faces?” “That is the meaning of life: getting a face, becoming real…” Peter Kreeft. A person acquires a face? “Aaron, the high priest, went into the Holy of Holies once a year, he had to burn incense on the coals coming out from the outer altar so that he couldn’t see the mercy seat. He had to look up, because he wasn’t…

Are you walkin with God my friend, are you walkin with God? Are you holdin the rope so tight, are you walkin in light? Or awaitin some sign, awaitin so dumb? Avoidin His blessedness, eatin the crumb? Are you walkin with God my friend, are you walkin with God? Are you walkin in love, like God above? Are you walkin The Spirit way, in comfort’s Dove? or walkin the hum, of the devil drum? Are you walkin with God my friend, are you walkin with God? Are you walkin with acuracy, atop that wall? Are you walkin, steps ordered, follow’n the Word? or random sloth with fuzzy thought, and mostly bored? Are you walkin with God my friend, are you walkin with God? Are you walkin the valley, or high-handed fraud? Are you finding His presence, ever so near? or running half-maddened, to far reaching career? Are you walkin with God my…

“Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” Job 38:1-2 “How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily?” Psalm 13:2 “O my God, my soul is cast down within me:” Psalm 42:6 “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me?” Psalm 42:6 “lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death — hope thou in God.” There are four characteristics of a person who hides in their self counsel. First, they live in self-preservation. Secondly, a person who is hiding in Adam lives in self-defense mechanisms. The third characteristic is self-absorption. Fourth, self-occupation According to Dr. Carl H. Stevens, founder of Greater Grace Church in Baltimore Md. these 4 characteristics progress in the self-counseled soul. The self-absorbed become distracted and blinded to God’s viewpoint and…

“The most likely theory is that Christmas trees started with medieval plays. Dramas depicting biblical themes began as part of the church’s worship, but by the late Middle Ages, they had become rowdy, imaginative performances dominated by laypeople and taking place in the open air. The plays celebrating the Nativity were linked to the story of creation—in part because Christmas Eve was also considered the feast day of Adam and Eve. Thus, as part of the play for that day, the Garden of Eden was symbolized by a “paradise tree” hung with fruit.” “These plays were banned in many places in the 16th century, and people perhaps began to set up “paradise trees” in their homes to compensate for the public celebration they could no longer enjoy. The earliest Christmas trees (or evergreen branches) used in homes were referred to as “paradises.” They were often hung with round…

Common sense can cure some depression but folks who renege at receiving God’s grace may be the source of their own problem. Common sense often requires no spiritual insight, and unchristian men and women may handle their depression by simple coping. They understand things like “no sense crying over spilled milk.” Here are some more common sense sayings: “Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.” Edmund Burke blrainyquote.com “The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.” H. Jackson Brown, Jr.” brainyquote.com How could these men know these things? Martyn Lloyd Jones said this, “Christianity is common sense and much more, but it includes common sense.” He goes on: “Let us then lay this down as a principle…We must never for a second worry about anything that cannot be affected or changed by us…It is a waste of energy…if you can…

The Book of Job teaches us some interesting phenomena about the ways of men. “The tendency to conflate, (blend), poverty with other social issues such as unemployment, welfare receipt or substance abuse, or to uncritically cite these conditions as explanations of poverty, is tied up with the tendency to portray poverty as a problem created by those experiencing it. .” From jrf.org.uk “… those who deviate are seen as the source of trouble. The obvious question observers ask is, why do these people deviate from norms? Because most people view themselves as law abiding, they feel those who deviate do so because of some kind of unusual circumstances: accidents, illness, personal defect, character flaw, or maladjustment… In other words, the deviant is the cause of his or her own problem.” Borrowed from “the sociological approach to social problems—Russ Long” I guess we must talk of this phenomena. If a person falls to chance or…

“Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” Philippians 4:11-12 I’m good at abounding but not so much with abasement. Why does God allow abasement? It means “to humble,” which conjures up thoughts of pain, so this is why most folks don’t get content with it. Yes, pain we cringe at, but humility itself brings something special. Paul became content since humility brings self-satisfying; it brings us closer to God . “The perfect meekness that comes from self-humbling brings with it an all-embracing concentration on the goodness and love of God.” “None of the acts of God, whether in…

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1:4 Why does God allow us to comprehend the fact of being chosen? Isn’t it confusing? — answer: to bless us with a sense of destiny — To bless us with the sense of our special calling — To give us a sense of value — and, because it is true. We are: Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. 1 Peter 1:2 Aha, I was in God’s foreknowledge. He knew me before I was born, He knew about my choice, when I was 25 years old, for Him . Can we say that God chose me based on His prior knowledge of my choice? Yes! …Through sanctification of the Spirit. God’s election was carried out as He snatched me out of this world, and separated me unto Himself, once for all. Hebrews…

Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner. Luke_7:39 What kind of prophet? An ethics policeman? Greg Boyd makes an insightful observation in His article on “The Point of the Book of Job.” “Most of us do not like ambiguity. Life is generally easier if we convince ourselves that everything is clear and simple. This, I believe, is part of our legacy of eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 3:1-7). In our fallen delusion, we feel it our rightphet, and within our capacity, to declare unambiguously who and what is “good” and who and what is “evil.” We are not omniscient, but having eaten from the forbidden tree, we have a fallen misguided…